eLearning has a satisfactory
set of options if your goal is information delivery or procedural training, but
what about creating meaningful eLearning for complex skill development or for
the not-so-procedural problems that show up more and more in the workplace? What
about creating learning for those situations where your SME can’t tell you what
good performance looks like except to say, “Well, you know it when you see it”?

Frameworks from complexity
science and the science of expertise development can help you diagnose these
kinds of complex learning problems, and can help point to eLearning design
strategies that can actually address and support complex skill development. You
will learn how variables like frequency of use, tacitness or explicitness, and
level of automaticity affect skill development. This session will address
assessment strategies for complex learning as well.

In this session, you will learn:

How to diagnose a
complex skill problem

How to use
complexity models such as the Cynefin framework for learning

How to use
alternative assessment and feedback strategies for complex learning
environments

Julie Dirksen

Instructional Strategist

Usable Learning

Julie Dirksen, an instructional strategist with Usable Learning, is a consultant and instructional designer with more than 15 years’ experience creating highly interactive eLearning experiences for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to technology startups to grant-funded research initiatives. She’s interested in using neuroscience, change management, and persuasive technology to promote sustainable long-term learning and behavior change. Her MS degree in instructional systems technology is from Indiana University, and she’s been an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is the author of Design For How People Learn.